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When treated like an integral system, insulation reduces energy
consumption, which is an optimal way to benefit the environment. |
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The Environmental Benefit
Advanced Insulation’s purpose for existing as a company is to benefit the
environment by delivering superior insulation work to our customers. Advanced
Insulation treats insulation like an integral system and not a commodity. When
treated like an integral system, insulation reduces energy consumption, which is
an optimal way to benefit the environment.
“If” your attic insulation is deficient, Advanced Insulation’s “green value
proposition” is a win-win situation for you and the environment. Although our
green proposition is rather mundane when compared to a solar array on a roof or
a hybrid car, it is a great value if your home has missing or poorly installed
insulation in your attic and it is not uncommon for Arizona homes to have
mediocre insulation in the attic. Link: Why so many problems?
According to an article in a March 08 issue of Fast Company Magazine entitled
“Another Inconvenient Truth” greenwashing is quite common. To greenwash is the
“act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company
and the environmental benefits of a product of service.”
The article begins by saying, “you can’t swing a dead hippie in a big-box
store these days without hitting some sort of green boast on a label. Partially recycled. Energy Efficient. Eco-Friendly. Natural!” TerraChoice
Environmental evaluated 1,018 green advertised products and all but one
committed one of the six sins of green washing
www.terrachoice.com
This type of marketing is as nauseating, as it is common. Too many
companies are more interested in their appearance of their offer, rather than
the substance of their offer. This is where Advanced Insulation shines. We
don’t have to mislead consumers. According to the Alliance to Save Energy
“energy efficiency is the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to extend our world’s
energy supplies.”
At Advanced Insulation we believe our green value proposition is one of the
best you can come across in the state, “if” you have insulation problem in your
attic. Advanced Insulation blows in a recycled cellulose insulation product
into your attic, which in turn makes your home more energy efficient and
comfortable.
The investment in making your home more energy efficient not only helps the
environment, but in return your house is more comfortable and it reduces your
utility bill. You are not giving up comfort to help the environment; you are
increasing your comfort. The investment in insulation pays for itself over
time. How quickly depends on the magnitude of the problem and the cost of
energy. See FAQ about Cost, Payback & Process.
Green: About as good as it gets in the Valley
Think about what happens to your news paper when it is dropped into the
recycled bin or at the Lion’s club charitable recycling project. Most people
don’t have any idea where it goes, so we’ll fill in the blanks. We’ll take
you on a journey from your recycle bin all the way back to your attic.
- In most people’s minds the journey of recycled new prints ends at their
curb or at a bin of a local charity where they deposit their newspaper. This is where the cellulose insulation story begins.
Depositing newspapers in the recycle bin
- Once the newsprint is collected it is sorted and then sold. The
newsprint is a valuable commodity. One of the buyers of recycled news
print is our local cellulose insulation supplier, United Fibers, in Chandler
Arizona. The material is dropped off at the factory after being sorted
before begin converted back to cellulose fiber.
Sorted paper waiting to be processed
- The recycled newsprint is sent into the manufacturing process to
fiberized into cellulose insulation. This is a process in which the
newspaper is converted back to a fiber.
Processing begins at the United Fiber Plant
- The cellulose insulation is treated with fire retardants and then
packaged into thirty pound bags. The finished cellulose insulation,
including the added fire retardants, is not an unhealthy or hazardous
material.
Processing completed
- The bags of cellulose insulation are loaded on to a trailer and then
delivered to our facility in Glendale. The fact that the insulation is
being manufactured locally and delivered across town further reduces the
impact on the environment.
Trailers loaded in Chandler 30 pound
bags of cellulose insulation
- Advanced Insulation loads our attic blow trucks in our Glendale yard and
heads to our customer’s home.
Blow truck parked by the curb in front of one of our customer’s homes
- A trained installer blows the cellulose insulation into our customer’s
attic. Our installers are very clean and conscientious. In the photo
below they are blowing new cellulose, which has a grey color, on top of
older cardboard based cellulose insulation. In this older home there
wasn’t enough insulation installed in the attic when the home was
constructed. You can tell there are only a couple of inches or insulation in
this attic because you can see the ceiling joists that our installer has his
hand and knees on.
Installer blowing cellulose into an attic
- The cycle is complete. From Sundays paper to working 24/7 in one of
our customer’s attics to make their home more comfortable and energy
efficient.
Why cellulose insulation in our retrofit program
The majority of our retrofit insulation jobs usually require us to blow in
more insulation into existing attics and repair and add more fiberglass
insulation. For our retrofit jobs Advanced Insulation makes a purchase
decision between blown cellulose and fiberglass insulation and we believe that
locally manufactured cellulose insulation is the obvious environmental winner.
Advanced Insulation is not misleading consumers when we claim that our
retrofit insulation program is one of the best green value propositions in the
Valley. Locally manufactured cellulose insulation is a critical component
of our offer because of its high recycled content and low embodied energy.
Cellulose insulation is approximately 80% post consumer recycled content. Paper, especially newsprint, represents one of the largest single components of
the residential waste stream. Instead of wasting this resource and placing
it in a landfill, it is being re-manufactured into insulation that can be blown
into an attic, which in turn saves energy.
The embodied energy reflects the amount of energy to manufacturer and
transport the product. Any insulation product that reduces energy
consumption is arguably green, yet is easy to see that cellulose has the most
environmental benefits. It takes about 20 to 40 times less energy to make
a pound of cellulose than it does of blown-in fiberglass. When it is
manufactured at United Fiber in Chandler with local recycled material, the
transportation costs are minimal compared to other insulation materials shipped
from out of state.
In and of itself the cellulose insulation is not the answer. Like any
insulation material it must be installed correctly to realize its full
potential. This is why Advanced Insulation is critical to the equation.
We are committed to performing quality insulation work, so our customers and the
environment both realize the benefit. |
